Fender Justin Meldal Johnsen Mustang

After a couple of months of owning the JMJ Mustang, I feel like I can objectively review the bass now.

First of all, let's put it out of the way, I love it.

Out of the box, it came with Fender 9050 Flatwound strings which complement the vintage sound and feel of the bass. In terms of setup, the action was perfect and there were no dead spots but the intonation was off. It needed some major intonation on the E string and the A string needed some minor intonation fixes. Both the D and G were properly intonated. The fretboard needed some oil as it was a little dry but those were all minor things in my book. The gig bag it comes with is just a regular gigbag for a normally scaled bass. Not suited for a short scaled bass but it will do the job if needed.

On to the bass itself. It is pretty lightweight and it feels really good on the hands. I know that the relicing process is not for everyone, but I can assure you that the neck on this thing feels like it has been played for 50 years, it's perfect, feels like a real vintage bass. It comes with vintage lollipop hipshot tuners which are welcome (those are reliced to fit the image and feel of the bass) and looks cool and the Seymour Duncan pickups are, in my opinion, the biggest selling point of this bass. They sound really defined and punchy. Coupled with flatwound strings this bass provides a deep and rich sound with great definition. Very P-Bass like, but with its own character.
The tone knob is very responsive and has a lot of range, you can hear a difference even with a minimal change.

I was looking for a bass that channeled a vintage feel, that was easy to carry around, but that sounded big at the same time. I wasn't disappointed, this bass ticked all the boxes and it will surely be with me for a long time.

Secret tech: This is a great pick/mute bass! The thing that surprised me the most in this bass was the thump you can get when mute picking. I never heard such a beautiful pick attack. It's perfect for those boogaloo fast runs.


Summing up:

The build quality is topnotch, don't be discouraged just because it's made in Mexico. There's attention to every detail and it sounds like a P bass but bit more focused (exactly like how JMJ described it).

After a wait of 6 months it was all worth it!
The build quality is topnotch and i love the Roadworn look, it is done very nice and in much detail everywhere, even the thumbrest and hardware, screws, and the nitro laquer. It is not overdone... very,very nice. This shortscale bass sings with flatwounds (La Bella!) and playing with a pick, for me this is THE sound i was after. The real 60's tic tac sound. Justin knows his thing.
The custom Seymour Duncan pickups are hot and big, but nice sounding and needed a little lowering at the E and G string side. Feel,fretwork and neck are great, nice thick neck like the original! and what a sustain...A very high Quality instrument (mexico is not an issue her anymore!! ) and for sure an collectors item after a few years when they stop making these....
Buy one! It is the closest thing to an original vintage Mustang but with very reasonable price. Thomann thanx for keeping me notice about the delays.

Really love this bass for it's design, aging, concept and playability (short scale). But mine has several issues. Saddles for E and A strings almost fall off. There are just one or two winds left for the screws to hold them in place. That occurs a very noisy buzz due to the rattling tension springs for those two saddles. They are not long enough. Adjusting of the saddles is not possible without ruining the intonation.
The truss rod at the neck heel is extremely offset and barely reachable for adjustment. Never seen that before on any guitar. A minor issue is the loveless treated neck. Dirty fretboard and dull frets.

Sound is good but not brilliant. Thanks to string through construction (was one reason for the purchase) the bass resonates fantastic.

I really like the Road Worn series for their nitro lacquer and aged broken in feel but for one grand plus the quality is too bad. Decided to return the bass, sadly. It plays really well and it's easy to get used to as a guitar player.

I'm actually a pro sax player but do some gigging with bass as well (so you get an idea). I bought this one because I like short scale basses and this one looked really sharp (plus I dig JMJ as a player). It came set up pretty well, my go-to guy did the rest and now it sounds as good as it looks. I'm not especially fond of Fender flats (will probably change to Chromes in the future) but the bass sounds good with them, especially with the pick. It's not your big league 5 string monster but it's got that mid-range bite that comes through any mix. I'm keeping it. It's well built, sounds great. I gave it three stars for features - it's got one pickup, level and tone. That's perfectly fine and I would not add or take away anything. I actually have no idea, what 5-star features are so I could give it 5 stars just as well.